Pan-African Parliament concerned over poll losers' conduct

THE Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has moved to assert its influence to ensure regional political stability in the wake of conflicts on the continent caused by disputed elections and unlawful change of governments.

In an interview, PAP president Chief Fortune Charumbira said the continental body was worried about losing presidential candidates who refuse to accept election outcomes, as this had the potential to cause conflicts.

PAP, he said, has since started engagements with relevant African Union organs to ensure that it achieved the objectives that it has set out as a new Bureau.

Chief Charumbira also implored Angola to hold peaceful elections and urged political leaders to accept the outcome.

"On the issue of peace and security, we had two engagements with the AU Commissioner on Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Ambassador Bankole Adeoyo, twice in Lusaka, and only last week here. We are seized with that issue including election observation," he said.

Chief Charumbira said PAP will push for election observation status, after years on the sidelines partly because of the Covid-19 pandemic and also challenges around electing a new Bureau which he now leads.

He said election observation in African countries will help in strengthening political stability. Neutral observers can do this by being able to confirm that elections were run properly.

"Look at Kenya already, at a time we thought we are deepening democracy on the continent, we are now having challenges even in those countries that projected themselves as more democratic than others and we do not even have a solution up to now in Kenya. We have Angola going into an election. We believe it will come out well, so yes the issue of conflict, unconstitutional changes of Governments, we are really, as PAP, geared to play a more prominent role," Chief Charumbira said.

He said his Bureau will work on improving greater collaboration between PAP and the AU for the betterment of the continent.

"One area that is important is to link up with the AU. It is the mother of PAP even in terms of resources and in terms of programmes. They are all here, all those AU departments are represented. So we thought it is strategic that, as we plan for PAP, an organ of the AU, we need all other organs to be present so that whatever we agree on or resolve, we are intertwined or embedded with the whole AU family," said Chief Charumbira.

"We want to make sure that there is collaboration with the whole AU system.

"The collaboration did not exist quite well in the past although the rules and protocols assumed we will work together but that has not been very good.

"This time around we promise we will be working closely together."